Haversill III: Return of the Donkey

[kariokie]

Getty

"Sore loser," she mutters quietly to the fey.

{Take 20 on Escape Artist, so 22. Otherwise, stay put.}

[dauphinous]

The centaur's deep voice rumbles as he continues his trot. "Do you intend to resist if I do not? No lasting harm will come to you. I swear it on my honor."

[Eratosthenes]

Tom

"You must take me for some kind of stupid if you're askin' me that. I hain't gonna be doin' nuthin' foolish." Tom won't resist if he's put down, he'll brush himself off, while stretching a little, and investigating the wound he received from the arrow.

"Now, why the H-E double farmer's crooks did you have to go and shoot us? Oh...and wow, are you a real centaur?! I done heard lots about you folk, in stories."

[dauphinous]

The centaur neither slows down nor stops. And he certainly doesn't put Tom down. "I didn't shoot you. I am transporting you and your companions as a favor to Okleena. What I get in return is none of your business. She wants something from you that will not overly harm you, so she claims, then we will take out of the forest and leave you there. Should she attempt to do anything to any of you that will cause undue harm, we will stop her. Because I didn't sign up to be a party to that."

[Eratosthenes]

Tom

"Well, I guess I have ta thank you for that. But why didn't that bonny lass just plumb ask us for whatever favor she was a'wantin'? We're agreeable gents. That slumbering guy had to chew his own arm off, if you can believe it, to escape from her enchantments." Tom squirms and shifts, then continues, "I wasn't wantin' to try to rastle free...but this sure is a poor way to travel. Think there might be a better position, for the both of us? Oh...and we done had a friend of ours - a fiesty young lady - you think you can send someone to make sure she don't do something dumb? She's a right nice lass once you get to know her."

"What's your name, anyhow?"

[dauphinous]

"Okleena only wanted the men. I am Fareltash. And the pixies will watch her." He says this, then they all slow down and stop. He sets Tom down gently on his feet, while the others retain their burdens. The dryad steps into view, looking a little sullen and angry.

"He's awake."

"Yes, he is." Fareltash speaks with clipped words, and he is clearly not altogether pleased about this arrangement. "Very observant. The others will be soon, so you should be quick about this."

She frowns and moves up to Allard first.

---

Getty hears a soft sigh from not far away, but no source fo the voice is apparent. It sounds like one of the voices from before. "Your friends will be here soon. This is really nothing personal, you know. I'm sure we could be fabulous friends. Why, I'll bet you like cake. I like cake, too! Mmmm. Especially honey and walnut cake. That's really the best. Shardaram makes the best honey and walnut cakes."

[Eratosthenes]

Tom

"Thanks Fareltash." Tom stretches, rubbing his midsection. Turning to the dryad, he continues, "Howdy Okleena. Long time. Hey...uh...what in the nine heavens is going on? You know we was done on our way to meet you already - ya didn't need to drug us and all."

Softening his tone, he adds, "If you need help, just ask. We're good at helping. We just need to know what ya got planned."

Tom tries to steal furtive glances for signs that the other two are waking.

[kariokie]

Getty

"Oh, I like cake as well, especially the variety of- Hey! You will not bamboozle me into becoming predisposed to you after your companions attempted to perforate me with projectiles and finally succeeded. My appendages are distressed," she cranes her neck a little to check the bleeding on her bound legs and arms, "and my nose itches."

She lies in silence for a moment, and then adds, "So, what are you? What can you do? Do you fly? Are you always invisible? Do you have a corporeal form at all? How do you construct those arrows if you do not?"

[dauphinous]

"What did you bring the wolf for?" Okleena sounds a little annoyed. She picks up Allard's hand and pricks his finger with a small knife, then smears some of his blood on a leaf. She uses the knife to cut a very small lock of hair and folds that into the leaf.

As she does that, the centaur says, "It was right there with them. We would have brought the woman, too, if she had fallen with the rest of them."

Okleena gives Tom an uplifted eyebrow as she moves to Mallain to do the same thing to him. "He bit off his hand and ran away. He wasn't going to come willingly. And I know what he said. This wood has ears. You were all coming here to kill me."

---

A very short elf, maybe 2 feet tall, appears within Getty's sight. It has gossamer wings sprouting from its back, green eyes, and short blonde hair. "I'm a pixie. My name is Pleshnaril. I'll untie you if you promise to stay here until your friends are brought back." Pleshnaril's gender is not obvious.

[kariokie]

Getty

"Faaaaaaascinating." Getty looks the pixie over with wonder, again craning her neck from her prone position to take in as much as she can. "I am pleased to make your formal acquaintance, Pleshnaril. I am Haroldine Juniper Getty, but you may refer to me by my patronymic, Getty."

"I will indeed stay here until my friends are returned if you release me from my bonds."

[Eratosthenes]

Tom

To no one in particular, Tom sighs, "Why's everyone always gotta be jumpin' to conclusions...?"

"We was most definitely not a'plannin' on comin' to kill you. I'll be cursed on high to live my days as a horney toad, if that were the case. We were just worried you'd some nefarious scheme concocted for ol'Allard here. Seems you didn't exactly fill him in on your plans, fully, before imprisoning him."

"And now you done hired these nice folk," Tom indicates the centaurs, "to shoot us full'o'holes, and drug us into a stupor. Which, by the by, we're plenty durn good enough at doin' ourselves, if you just point us towards a local tavern."

"So why don't you just a'go and let us know what this here highsummer ceremony you done got planned, and maybe we'll a'willingly help? Because fey who go and steal our blood and bits shore do make me a'nervous. I mean, seriously - Fareltash, how'd you like me knockin' you unconscious and pullin' out your tailfeathers? You'd likely be in a right ornery mood. Am I right?"

[dauphinous]

"How about if I stumble into your home and start crashing about?" Though his words are a little harsh, Fareltash is smirking.

"You humans make no sense at all." Okleena, having taken a little blood and a little hair from the elf steps in front of Tom and looks up at him. "How could any man not want to live his days with me?" She shakes her head. "But I don't care anymore. And I don't really need you. Take them away."

----

The pixie, dressed in a bright green shirt and light blue pants, smiles. Its feet have little brown shoes with curly tips. "Nice to meet you, Getty. I'm sorry about all this." He kneels down and starts to work on untying the rope. "We all kind of owe Okleena for some stuff, and she asked, and we have this sort of favor-for-favor kind of system." He works at the rope for only a few moments, then he starts uncoiling the rope from Getty. "She was pretty mad when the one guy ran off. Probably some kind of self-esteem problem, if you ask me."

[Eratosthenes]

Tom

"Oh...oh, that was just right mean, Okleena." Tom returns the centaur's smirk, "Spurned by such a beautiful creature of the forest." Tom feigns heartbreak hanging his head, and steadying himself on the centaur.

Standing back up, Tom feigns a thinking stance, "Hrm...come to think of it, I think that you owe that elf something. You took his blood and body, didn't you? It wasn't in our original deal...I don't mean to quibble, ya know. If you woke him up, you could prolly just give him a smooch or something, and he'd be happy. I just don't want people to think you aren't the fairest creature in these woods, because they'd of course be wrong..."

Tom shrugs.

[kariokie]

Getty

She sits up, rubbing the life back into her arms and legs. "That is an excellent theorization, Pleshnaril, she does appear to have latent insecurities that might drive her to irrational behavior. I do not comprehend her machinations, though. If she needed my companions' assistance, why did she not request it? Our only assumption could be that she plotted to do evil. But you say that is not true?"

Getty crosses her legs, looking towards the small fey. "I do apologize about attempting to combust your forest. However, I am less regretful that I encouraged my compatriot to animate a tree and displace squirrels. Rarely have I met more annoying creatures." She looks around, worried. "I am about to experience the impact of another acorn for that, am I not?"

[dauphinous]

Okleena seems confused. "Our original deal was that you gave me the druid. he broke the deal."

Fareltash crosses his arms and gives Okleena a reproving look. "Well, no wonder they're mad. Daft tree-wench."

Okleena narrows her eyes. "I think everyone should just leave. I have what I want now."

Fareltash uncrosses his arms and shrugs. He looks at Tom. "Would you like to ride back?"

The centaur holding Mallain hisses at Fareltash. "We are not mounts." He spits out the last word like a vile curse.

Fareltash rolls his eyes. "No, but we can do distasteful things when the circumstance calls for it. Grow up."

---

Pleshnaril starts to laugh. The laughter is like a light tinkling of bells and causes it to flutter up into the air about a foot or so. Taking a minute to regain it's composure, the pixie remains grinning as it says, "if they understood you, maybe. Dumb little things. They talk too much, and their little brains are so small that they just do the dumbest things! I doubt they would have even been able to do their part if there hadn't been a rat leading them." The grin dims a little. "I have no idea what she wants with your friends. I know the centaurs won't go along with anything really awful."

[kariokie]

Getty

"I do hope the dryad plans no more than a minor inconvienence." Getty pulls a coin from a pouch and begins flipping it between her fingers. She quickly turns over her right hand, catching the coin in her palm. She closes her hand into a fist, passing her left hand over it. With a grin, she opens up her right hand, which is now empty.

Reaching behind her own ear with her left hand, she pulls out the coin, tosses it once in the air, and catches it.

"Who would have thought that rats were more intelligent than squirrels?"

[Eratosthenes]

Tom

Tom gets a guenuinely boyish smile on his face as he forgets the flippant and fickle dryad, and responds to the centaurs, "Would I?! Wow..." Taking in the other centaur's distasteful tone, Tom adds, "Oh, you're definitely not mounts...you're centaurs! My uncle told us all sorts of stories about you folk - how you protected the forest, and drove off evil creatures, and saved kids who got lost in the woods."

Turning back to Faraltesh, Tom asks, "Are you sure? I mean...I can walk, I don't mind. I'm not much good at riding anything - heck, I fall out of trees."

If Faraltesh truly doesn't mind, Tom will eagerly hop aboard, and head on out of the forest, asking the centaurs what life is like for them.

[dauphinous]

Fareltash nods and gives Tom and hand up, grinning at his enthusiasm. "I am a great deal easier to ride than a horse."

One of the other centaurs shakes his head and sighs heavily, but starts away from the dryad.

"Your brother will laugh in your face for this."

"And your mother with beat you with a branch."

"Only if you tell them. Though I doubt it will stop your sister from letting me mount her."

The four centaurs seem to all find this very funny, laughing. They move quickly through the wood, faster than a normal horse would probably be willing to go through the trees. After another minute or so, Mallain and Allard begin to stir.

----

Pleshnaril watches Getty manipulate the coin with delight written plainly on its face. "Is that a real coin? Because I can do that with an illusion, but a real coin? That is so neat!"

[kariokie]

Getty

She tosses the copper coin to Pleshnaril so he can verify it's indeed real. "It is simplistic in its execution. I could certainly instruct you. Do you have anything of a similar size you might practice with? I believe a coin would be too large for your hands."

"Or we could juggle!" Standing, Getty takes the two sun rods from her belt and a third from Heecor and begins juggling them.

[mdsoze]

Allard

Allard begins to stir. If when he awakes, he sees the dryad, he will transform into a dire wolf and attack.

If he sees other hostile creatures, he will transform and attack.

If he sees no hostile creatures, he will check on Belle.

If Belle is gone, he will look for Belle.

[Eratosthenes]

Tom

As Allard and Mallain stir to consciousness, Tom calls over to them, "Good mornin', boys. Say hello to Faraltesh and...uh...and...the other guys."

[Hzurr]

Mallain

Mallain sits up "Bloody hells..." He looks around quickly. "Well...I see Getty didn't burn down the forest, so does that mean the Dryad beat us like a pair of half-orc stepchildren?

"Faraltesh was it? Nice to meet you." he adds, extending a hand.

[dauphinous]

"Karmlin." The centaur carrying Allard nods his head.

"Laerstel." This is the one carrying Mallain.

"Bar'est." This is the final centaur, which is carrying Belle.

When Mallain squirms, Laerstel chuckles. "Hang on, elf man. We're almost there."

"Nothing particularly bad happened, if that's what you're asking." Fareltash takes a leap over a downed tree and the others follow suit, bounding up and over gracefully. The landing is a little jarring, but certainly less than it would be on a normal horse.

----

Pleshnaril giggles merrily, watching Getty juggle. It applauds and tries very hard to participate. While it is fairly dexterous, the pixie unfortunately does not really have a knack for juggling. It does find this hilarious, though, and is soon rolling in the grass, laughing.

[kariokie]

Getty

Getty throws one of the sun rods she's juggling at Pleshnaril lightly, impacting the pixie as it laughs on the ground. She throws the next sun rod, and then the third. Grinning, she sits down again. "So, I am curious how you fly. Aerodynamically, it does not seem you are as well suited to it as birds. Do you have any theorizations?"

[mdsoze]

Allard

So, why are you taking us to her? What's in it for you?

[dauphinous]

"Heh, poor kid. We're taking you away from her now. You missed the big show." Just a few more strides, and you can see some clear sky through the trees ahead. "In fact, we're almost out."


The pixie sits up and flutters its wings a couple of times. "Ummmmmmm. I don't know. Huh. I mean, I have wings, so I can fly." It shrugs. "My gramps once told me a story about a grig that started to wonder how it was that he could turn invisible. He asked lots of questions, then started doing experiments and stuff. When he was done, he still didn't know, but he was short a leg and both antennae, and he had a demon trying to find him and eat him, and he was cursed so he could only speak in rhyme. Which isn't really so bad for a grig, all things considered. The rhyming part, I mean. The rest of it is still pretty bad."

Just about this time, Getty can hear the sound of four horses crashing through the forest nearby.

[kariokie]

Getty

The pixie's story seems to greatly upset Getty for only one reason, "He never discovered the method he utilized to render himself invisible? That is terrible!" She shakes her head at the shame of the grig's scientific endeavors not resulting in additional knowledge.

"That assists me in recollecting an incident where I was attempting to discover why fire extinguishes itself in an enclosed, sealed container. I created a chamber large enough to host both me and a fire. Apparently, both combustion and I need to breathe, as the fire dimmed, so did I." She grins a little. "That is approximately the moment when I discovered the interior doorknob on my glass chamber did not function as properly as I had designed. Fortunately, I had the presence of mind to utilize acid to aid my escape." Looking at Pleshnaril, she adds, "Unfortunately, the acid first ate through the floor of the chamber, and then the floor of my lab. Which was on the second storey. Above a basement. That apparently had an underground river underneath it, as I discovered during my speedy descent."

Getty turns her head at the crashing sounds. "Either my companions are being returned, or Tom's aggressive tree remains in an animated state and is coming to find more prey." More loudly, she calls out, "Hello! Are you my friends or angry foliage?"

[mdsoze]

Allard

That still didn't answer the real question. Why are you helping her? And do you know what she's doing?

[dauphinous]

"We've helped her because we got something in return. The nature of our deal with her isn't really any of your business. And I don't really care what she's doing, as long as she doesn't destroy the whole forest. Which seems unlikely."

"We are friends," calls Fareltash in response to Getty's query. "Or, at least, we are neither angry foliage nor foes."

Pleshnaril fades into invisibility. "Sounds like my job is done here," the small voice says quietly.

As they come closer and finally step out of the trees, Getty can see that the one Tom is riding is smirking. The other three centaurs, all wearing fairly neutral expressions, gently set their burdens down, and Belle seems to be waking just as she is put on the ground.

[Eratosthenes]

Tom

Hopping down from the centaur's back, Tom's smiling from ear to ear. "Thanks, Faraltesh! And everyone," Tom says, nodding to the other centaurs. "Oh, hey there Getty. No angry foliage here. Ol'pouty tree-lady, she's right done with us, I reckon. These fine gents here done gave us a ride on back." Turning to Allard, "No worries, chief. She didn't do anything too bad to you." Tom smirks.